OBJECTIVES: To investigate the process of normalization of mildly mentally retarded persons in a large urban area and an adjoining suburb and to ascertain the ways in which community services facilitate or thwart normalization. The proposal is based on research in progress for the past 2 and 1/2 years on the quality of life of the mentally retarded which has provided orienting hypotheses such as the following: (1) MR individuals in the community live in a "closed" environment or "ecology" that bounds off their experiential universe, (2) Behaviors adaptive to this "ecology" may hinder normalization. (3) Typical interpersonal interaction between MR persons and normal "others", and agencies in service system, have the effect of maintaining and reinforcing incompetent behavior, (4) Cultural norms invoked by "normalizers" are cultural ideals held by a limited segment of the general population, (5) Experiences in the world with actual contingencies are more likely to facilitate normalization than typical formal instruction for the retarded. METHODS: The focus is upon the normalization incident (NI), an occurrence or practice that significantly affects a mentally retarded person's achievement of a "more nearly normal way of life" (Wolfensberger 1972). This concept is based in part on Flanagan's (1954) critical incident technique. These NI''s will be collected ethnographically from three samples: (1) Residential settings, (2) MR individuals in cohort, (3) Non-residential instructional programs. Each NI will be described from the multiple perspectives of the principal persons involved and will be followed longitudinally. DATA TO BE COLLECTED ARE: (1) formal and informal interviews, (2) descriptions of naturally occurring events and interactions (much on video-tape), and (3) dossier material from agency and clinical records. The final analysis is to find regularities in the subjective experiences of the MR person, the circumstances of the event, and the concerns and experiences of the normalizers. These recurrent features will allow us to understand the normalization process and will provide practical guidelines for helping MR persons to achieve lives that are as normal as possible.